The Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Worldwide Organisation for Women (WOW) Africa, Chief Mrs. Carol Ugochukwu, has expressed optimism that the 2025 WOW Leadership Programme has raised new set of future leadership, who will contribute significantly to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs in Nigeria.
Chief Ugochukwu disclosed this at the closing of the recently-concluded annual programme in Awka.
She charged participants mainly students not to allow the fire that has been lit in them go dim.
The CEO who delivered a virtual message, expressed joy that the programme, birthed in 2022, continues to grow in scope and quality.
“WOW Africa is an initiative for Women of Africa to tell their stories, confidently projecting their voices, building strong families.
“It has provided enabling platforms for the voiceless in sororal solidarity to develop community-specific solutions to their issues.
“The theme of this fourth edition – “From Potential to Purpose: Made to Impact”, is a challenge to participants to stop at nothing in impacting their generation for good.
Optimism for transformation
“I have no doubt that the students who attended the two-day event can no longer remain the same.
“My appeal to them is to keep the fire glowing until the goal of WOW Africa which is to see women and girls empowered is achieved.
“That goal aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals hence everything we do here revolves around SDGs,” she explained.
Executive Director, WOW Africa, Mrs Amaka Akudinobi, described sustainable learning as critical to the achievement of seventeen SDGs by 2030.
Akudinobi’s message was read by the Secretary, WOW Africa, Mrs Ngozi Chukwujekwu.
She said, “Our programs are geared towards eliminating the debilitating effects of abject, obtrusive cultural restrictions, and gender-based discrimination that affect the rights and lives of women and children.
“For us at WOW Africa, the WOW Way entails the following: Faith+Family+Education+Mentorship+Community.
Sustainable Development
The ED explained the origin of SDGs to participants who were mainly secondary school students.
“In 2015 all members of the United Nations member came together and set up a plan.
“The aim was to deal with issue of peace, and prosperity for people and the planet now and in the future.
“In their mind, some if not all the sustainable development goals could be achieved by the year 2030.
“To sustain these goals, one must form and sustain the learning culture.
Akudinobi explained that sustainable learning culture will help anyone to become a better member of his or her community.
“I will close by sharing with you a quote from my father, Ichie Dala Omeokachie on learning.
He said, “We must all be life-long students”. This quote has guided me all through my life.
Nelson Mandela equally said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
SDGs: calls for action
WOW Africa’s Lead Teen Advisor, Mrs Zara Ilona’s message was titled “How can I live to learn?
She described the SDGs as calls for action that discerns the need for lifelong learners.
“Learning culture, or the pledge to commit to adaptation, comprehension, and the advancement of mankind, is vital to the development of society.
“Without the vow to persistently yearn to learn, we jeopardize the evolution of civilization.
Moreso, we become an anchor in the search for human innovation and growth.
According to her, “being a lifelong learner, despite its daunting impression, is crucial in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
“We must be the defining difference and strive to be the generation that concludes the conventional culture of projecting apathy.
“Our devotion, our mission, to live a life led by learning will be the distinguished distinction between our generation and those of the past.
“The impact of our learning is not something to diminish. The acquisition of knowledge reveals innovative opportunities.
The Teen Advisor explained that a lifelong learner holds the competence to assuage discordant conflict.
“When tasked with the adversity of the hindrances of the world that surrounds us, one must ask oneself – how can I live to learn?,” she concluded.
With series of presentations anchored on the SDGs, the two-day leadership programme moderated by WOW Africa Media Director, Mrs. Ify Aronu-Okafor, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to raising a purposeful generation of young leaders ready to promote sustainable development in Africa.
